Cold cases never close for Ames police

Saturday

Aug 15, 2015 at 9:50 AMAug 16, 2015 at 8:41 AM

As Aaron Marr frantically paced around the living room of his Ames home on the evening of Sept. 22, 2007, no one in the room could have anticipated that he would be dead within hours, or that his case would remain an unsolved mystery to this day.

As Aaron Marr frantically paced around the living room of his Ames home on the evening of Sept. 22, 2007, no one in the room could have anticipated that he would be dead within hours, or that his case would remain an unsolved mystery to this day.

There are nine cold cases in Story County, according to iowacoldcases.org, two of which are missing person cases, the other seven are all homicides. This look at unsolved cases in Story County is part of a statewide project initiated by the Iowa Newspaper Association to keep attention on the state’s 438 unsolved murders, and 109 missing persons cases.

For the police officers who investigated them, the cold cases as they are commonly called, continue to haunt them years later.

Ames Police Detective Chad Lovig was one of the first responders to the Marr’s home at 210 S. Second St., that night, and he knew from the start that something was not right.

"Aaron had come to the door, and was obviously in some kind of pain," Lovig said. "It was kind of initially chaos. We didn’t really know what was going on."

Marr had been stabbed several times in the back and neck, but did not appear to be bleeding significantly when police initially responded. According to Lovig, Marr appeared frantic and almost incoherent, and refused several times to tell officers what had happened.

That was when Marr uttered those three words Lovig has not forgotten.

"I’ll never tell."

The 37-year-old was taken to the hospital that night, where he died a short time later. At the time, Lovig did not realize that Marr’s case would run cold and still be unsolved eight years later, which is why Marr’s last words have stuck with him.

Marr’s murder happened to be just one of the roughly half a dozen that occurred in Ames from 2007 to 2008. Both Lovig and Ames Police Cmdr. Jason Tuttle believe Marr’s murder was drug-related, based on what was said during interviews with witnesses and suspects, the paraphernalia Lovig noticed at Marr’s house and Marr’s roommate’s behavior the night of the murder.

With many of the suspects believed to be involved with drugs, and some of the crimes occurring around the city, getting them to talk and provide useful information proved to be difficult.

"Many of the people we talked to would implicate someone involved who knew Aaron somehow. We would talk to them and they would implicate someone else," Tuttle said. "We were trying to follow this trail of people, but it’s very difficult when you have people pointing the finger at each other."

According to Tuttle, police conducted over 70 interviews with friends, family and other suspects, some of them helpful, most not. With everyone putting the blame on each other, police were unable to nail down a solid suspect, which led to the case going cold. The one missing link they needed was Marr’s story, which could have easily been attained, which makes this case that much more frustrating for police.

"Unfortunately, that would’ve been the break that we needed right there, if he would’ve just told us what happened," Tuttle said.

Backtrack roughly 16 years before Aaron Marr was killed to Oct. 27, 1991. Ames Police Detective Mark Wheeler arrived at an apartment on East Lincoln Way, and saw what still is fresh in his mind nearly 24 years later.

James "Jimmy" Morris was found beaten to death in his own bed. Wheeler said the case sticks out to him for no other reason than the sheer brutality of the scene.

"He looked like he was just sleeping in his bed, and beaten," Wheeler said. "It was just a classic brutal crime scene."

As in Marr’s case, the culprit was never found.

Morris’ body was discovered after a neighbor went to check his apartment and found Morris dead in his bed. Reports said Morris suffered a fractured skull from a blunt object.

According to an article in the Ames Tribune archives, Morris was described by a neighbor at the time as somewhat of a loner and "kind of weird." The 58-year-old had previously been arrested on a terrorism charge after having a standoff with police while armed with a shotgun.

Wheeler said the homicide was most likely during a robbery, given that the culprit had gone through some of Morris’ personal items.

According to Wheeler, police followed several leads on suspects, but there was not enough evidence to charge them, and the case eventually went cold.

"It’s frustrating because you always want to solve every case, especially a homicide, but if the evidence isn’t there and the leads aren’t there, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it," Wheeler said.

Both cases have been revisited several times over the years.

Wheeler said with the advancements in DNA labs, they have sent blood samples for testing, but so far they have not yielded any useful results. Marr’s case is still revisited about once a year. Last year they had a new detective who was unfamiliar with the case take a look at the file in hopes a fresh pair of eyes would see something that had been missed, but nothing really stood out.

"Somebody out there committed a homicide, and we should be able to find out who it is, but sometimes we can’t," Wheeler said. "Homicides are never closed; they might be inactive for awhile, but they’re never closed."

....

STORY COUNTY UNSOLVED HOMICIDES

Information from iowacoldcases.org

Aaron Marr

Date: Sept. 22, 2007

Age: 37

Location: 210 S. Second St.

Cause of death: Stabbing

James Morris

Date: Oct. 27, 1991

Age: 58

Location: 200 block East Lincoln Way

Cause of death: Blunt force trauma to the head

Henry William Chavis

Date: Nov. 8, 1948

Age: 55

Location: U.S. Highway 69, 1 mile south of Ames

Cause of Death: Shot

Sheila Jean Collins

Date: Jan. 26, 1968

Age: 18

Location: Last seen in Ames, found near Colo and Nevada

Cause of Death: Strangulation

Terry Lee Vanden Hull

Date: Feb. 24, 1975

Age: 20

Location: Two and a half miles southeast of Maxwell

Cause of Death: Throat slit

Newborn Infant

Date: March 13, 1983

Age: Undetermined

Location: Rural Story County

Cause of Death: Undetermined

Chad James Schwab

Date: Aug. 10, 2004

Age: 30

Location: Near I-35 rest area

Cause of Death: Undetermined

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